Looks like 345 Cedar Street may go on the market as the other paper looks to shrink its footprint and liquidate some assets. Sub-leasing part of the building or selling it outright and leasing a portion back are both options. Reported elsewhere, Downtown St. Paul has tons of vacant class-B office space available, so this probably won't move too quickly. "Ramsey County property records indicate the site, which includes the 162,000-square-foot eight-story building, was valued at about $3.5 million for tax purposes, a figure that is typically lower than what the site may clear in a real estate deal."

It is definitely one of the better buildings in the "60s urban renewal district" of Saint Paul. But walking through on the skyway reveals obvious deferred maintenance and renovation that needs to occur. It has a dated and faded appearance -- but that can easily be fixed with some TLC.

This building has a lot of potential. But it need to find an owner that will spend money renovating it and putting in a brand lobby , New energy efficient windows, and new safety and HVAC systems. With the LRT station right across the street it is a perfect place to live. The skyway need some updates big time too. The limestone exterior is great and it could again be a fantastic building with the right investment.

So, is this still on the market? And the art deco Ecolab "Global Communications Center" at 360 Wabasha? These two buildings are separated by a single row of parking (with a skyway running through the PP building to the Victory Ramp).

These two buildings could be a residential conversion, with a new amenity/lobby building in between to create a 5th St entrance. The PP building could be a midcentury modern 8 story apartment building, and the Ecolab building would make an excellent 6 story boutique condo conversion with retail on the ground floor.

mattaudio wrote:So, is this still on the market? And the art deco Ecolab "Global Communications Center" at 360 Wabasha? These two buildings are separated by a single row of parking (with a skyway running through the PP building to the Victory Ramp).

These two buildings could be a residential conversion, with a new amenity/lobby building in between to create a 5th St entrance. The PP building could be a midcentury modern 8 story apartment building, and the Ecolab building would make an excellent 6 story boutique condo conversion with retail on the ground floor.

Matt I like your idea. Having a glass enclosed entrance where most of the parking ramp is would benefit both buildings and working to create a better skyway connection to the Victory Ramp and GCC would benefit the whole experience when walking thru that area. Especially for Guest who are staying at the InterContinental and use the skyway to get to the convention center. As things are now it is pretty bleak walk in those sections of the skyway.

The building has been sold to a developer planning to convert it into somewhere between 150 and 168 apartments. Details on where the PiPress is moving are planned to be released next week -- a "newer, nearby facility", according to this article:

There is definitely a vacuum of activity between the Lowertown area and the Rice Park area which this should project will help fill. My guess is that residents will be able to purchase parking at the Victory Ramp, which is connected to the building by skyway, no?

A bit off topic, but by my count there are 3 office to apartment conversion projects underway or soon to be underway in downtown: The Custom House, the Timberland project on Mears park, and now this.

I have watched the glacial pace of residential development in DT St Paul over the last 20 years. It's so nice to see this modest momentum.

A few posts back someone mentioned how that art deco Ecolab building which borders the PP building would make for a nice residential remodel. What a huge coup that would be for that block.

ProspectPete wrote:There is definitely a vacuum of activity between the Lowertown area and the Rice Park area which this should project will help fill. My guess is that residents will be able to purchase parking at the Victory Ramp, which is connected to the building by skyway, no?

A bit off topic, but by my count there are 3 office to apartment conversion projects underway or soon to be underway in downtown: The Custom House, the Timberland project on Mears park, and now this.

I have watched the glacial pace of residential development in DT St Paul over the last 20 years. It's so nice to see this modest momentum.

A few posts back someone mentioned how that art deco Ecolab building which borders the PP building would make for a nice residential remodel. What a huge coup that would be for that block.

You are correct with the Victory Ramp being connected to the Pioneer Building. One of the problems with the area in between Mears and Rice is a one story elevation change and makes for some very blank walls where that happens. The fact that too much parking and not enough doors where those elevation changes make it hard to embrace the street. St. Paul with it past developments went to the indoor and ignored the outdoors and now they are paying the price for short sighted thinking of the past 30+ years. The proximity of the Central Station should help with future foot traffic going either direction from the station. But clearly the blank walls that are along the east/west streets between Robert and Wabasha is a real problem that the city will have to work with building owner to fix and make it more appealing for street life in St. Paul. Only time will tell what can be done to make the street a more lively place to be.

**still hopeful that the same developer will buy the adjacent-and-for-sale Ecolab Communications Center building for housing conversion, and build a modern atrium/entry in the single row of parking between the two structures**

I was just "driving" around the area in Google Maps and noticed how pleasant the Lawson Commons building is, especially since it is a full block development including a half-block above-ground parking ramp. The parking is screened really well and there are a lot of active uses on the ground floor. Pretty well done for a newer building, and especially in St. Paul where, as noted above, the ground floor uses/facades were less than an afterthought for several decades.

As I noted on Twitter a few weeks back - on the PP/Ecolab block, the Victory parking ramp has 5(!!!) small retail tenants. The rest of the block, which includes the PP building and the Ecolab building noted above, has 0. Total absurdity...but way to go Victory parking ramp!

They were doing some kind of interior demo this morning. Looked like chunks of flooring/molding. It will be interesting to see how a 50s-era office building with so little in the way of windows works out as residential.

It will be good to have more residents in this part of downtown!

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Looking at the photos posted above it looks like interior demo is underway on upper levels, but I really wish they would take care of their skyway ASAP. It smells like a combination of shit and cigarette smoke, the walls have what appears to be gang symbols drawn on them, the floors were sticky/dirty/littered with trash, and it looks like some moron decided to take it upon themselves to take swipes at ceiling tiles where the ramp goes upward.